In a water-cooled engine, sufficient cooling may need to be provided to the bore bridge between adjacent engine cylinders. The bore bridge on the cylinder block and/or the cylinder head is a stressed area with little packaging space. In small, high output engines, due to packaging, the thermal and mechanical stresses may be increased. Higher bore bridge temperatures typically cause bore bridge materials to weaken and may reduce fatigue strength. Thermally weakened structure and thermal expansion of this zone may cause bore distortion that can be problematic to overall engine functionality such as, for example, piston scuffing, sealing functionality and durability of the piston-ring pack. Additionally, high temperatures at the bore bridge area also limit the reliability of the gasket in this zone, which in turn may cause combustion gas and coolant leaks, and/or reduced engine power output and overheating.